BROCKTON – The birth of a son is a significant milestone for any father, but for Shaquan Berry it saved his life.

Before his 7-year-old namesake was born, Berry had been headed down the wrong path – expelled from school, hung out with the wrong crowd and faced a host of legal troubles.

But once he held his newborn in his arms, he knew that his life was no longer just his own.

“He’s one of the reasons I changed my life,” he said.

“If I got into trouble again, I knew that I might not see him again. I had to switch up.”

Berry, 24, a Brockton native, is a father like many young dads who strive to do more than just put food on the table.

Part of his drive to change the course of his life for his son comes from his own fatherless upbringing. He admits that the void left by his absent father led him to seek support in all the wrong places, he said.

“There was no guidance for me,” he said. “My mom was raising a bunch of us. It was hard for her.”

He quickly fell into the wrong crowd and got kicked out of Brockton High School his sophomore year and had been arrested, he said.

Berry was 16 when he found out he was going to be a father.

Like most teen dads, he said, the thought of fatherhood scared him. But he had the support of his mother, Gwendolyn Grandison, who recently died, as well as from his twin sister, Shaqual, and other loved ones.

With financial pressures looming, he landed a job at a soul food restaurant and began to prepare to be a father.

When the restaurant went out of business, Berry slipped back in to his old life, and two weeks later, baby Shaquan was born.

“He had just been born and I was sitting in a juvenile facility,” he said. “I realized it wasn’t for me. I knew this life was not for me.”

With a renewed sense of purpose, he completed his high school diploma in 2010 and later earned an associate’s degree in fire science at Massasoit CC. His goal is to become a firefighter.

As a teen counselor at the Boys and Girls Club, Berry said that he relishes serving as a mentor to many other youth.

“It’s a blessing that I experienced certain things in my life because I am able to help teens stay away from certain situations that I was in,” he said.

Berry shares custody of his son, a Downey Elementary School second-grader, and likes to go on father-son fishing trips and enjoys watching comic book movies and cartoons with his little boy, he said.

Page 2 of 2 - He admits he is not a perfect dad but is always willing to learn from his mistakes.

“A lot of parents let other people like actors and rappers serve as role models in their child’s life,” he said. “When my son wants to look up to someone or have a hero, I prefer to be the one he looks at.

“I definitely want it to be me. That’s why I strive hard to accomplish my goals.”